Lets discuss our 2019 Vegetable Gardens here.

I already have a very large stack of seed catalogs on my desk.

I do start my own pepper and tomato seeds under lights each spring on March 1st. My goal is to first plant out my tomatoes and after that my peppers. My goal date is the end of April to start to plant out. I have been able to do that for about 4 years but this last spring the weather was cool so had to wait till the very beginning of May.

      Thanks for bringing us up to date, Rita.

I plant only a very small amount of vegetables. This year I plan to buy tomato starts again, hoping for some of my favorites, but if not my go-to nursery always has a large selection. I think I will try the Florida weave method which will expand my normal 5 plants to 8. I started a row of asparagus last spring which I will monitor and add to as needed. I'm hosting a late summer wedding this summer, so one bed that is normally vegetables will be zinnias. A raised bed will contain peas followed by beans, with perhaps a mix of spinach, beets, and carrots in front. I can usually squeeze a zucchini in somewhere as well as pumpkins. Perhaps a trellised cuke. Mostly I'm going to focus on late summer annual flowers - nasturtiums, zinnias, snaps. I don't have a long enough season for peppers (and I'm the only eater) and I struggle with potato scab, so have opted to just buy those from my local farm markets, along with corn.

Rita, how many shishito plants will you have this year? I'm hoping to find just one plant at the garden center.

Deeby said:Rita, how many shishito plants will you have this year? I'm hoping to find just one plant at the garden center.

Well, I start my plants from seed so I can have many.

The only place around here I have seen Shishito plants is at Home Depot which had the Bonnie plants in one plant peat pots.

I plan to buy Mellow Star Seeds. Which is a hybrid Shishito. Then I will be staring my common Shistito seeds and my Green Star hybrid Shistito seeds. Not all come up so I plant many.

I think I will start 12 of each as I simply need a lot of Shishitos to plant. Maybe 8 of each to plant?

I think I had 16 or 18 plants last year and really needed more even though the plants just made peppers like crazy.

I can always give extra pepper plants away.

Honestly the Shishito are a very prolific pepper but even so one plant can't so too much. I need a ton of plants as many in my neighborhood have tasted these peppers and are eager to receive more next season. My grass cutting guy alone gets a huge bagfull every two weeks when he comes here.

No real gardening news here yet, heading into full winter for the next two months, followed by peeks at spring in March.

Went through my seed collection and organized it. I will need to get tomatoes (looking for a variety to replace Celebrity, it has been disappointing the past couple of years), peppers (used all my seed last year after mice ate the first planting), shallots (I like Ambition, but used all the seed last year, and the patch got flooded), spinach (Space hybrid is the only reliable true spinach I have found - can't stand the New Zealand and other pseudo-spinaches), and maybe eggplant. I've got a half dozen catalogs, but 2 of them I don't order from, and don't know why I keep getting them.

I also found a ton of flower seeds (all pre 2014) that I'm going to try and start this year, because why not? If they grow I'll find spots for them.

I grew Monte Gusto pole beans last year, and liked them a lot. Since the packet was small and I used all the seeds, I left some pods to dry and picked them before frost. Finally cleaned them, and now testing 10 random for viability.

Will start onions, shallots near the end of January. Peppers too, they start so slow and take forever to grow here I like to start them early.

uh

I still have to organize my seeds from last year. I know I want to do a lot of. Carrots and beets this year. Also, I want to try and plant siccessions of greens this summer. It is my goal to have greens all summer. I have one bed filled with garlic, and will intersperse lettuce, arugula, and kale in that.
Will update on peppers and tomatoes later.

Rita, I'll check Home Depot first. Can't wait!

I know for sure I will do San Marzano Redorta again. They are my go to for sauce and salsa.
I always do planet peppers for my sweet peppers. I want to do some jalepenos, at least 3 plants. This fall I cut up peppers and divided them into 3 tablespoon portions and froze them. It has been great pulling them out to use when a recipe calls for canned green chilis.

I started some seed outdoors in milk jugs already with the winter sowing method and using soil blocking: 3 kinds of onions and chamomile. I just completed 2 large blueprints that I mapped out with index cards so that I can have the correct spacing and not forget to succession sow and undersow with the green manures. I added so many new vegetables this year! Many cold hardy veggies to winter sow Feb-Mar. My husband calls my work space "the war room" hahahaha

@Reid: I freeze my peppers in slices too! I would be lost without them. Some I cut in half to use for stuffed peppers throughout the winter. Beets are a staple for us here, and I think you will find that they are one of the easiest, least pest/disease prone veggie of them all. I am trying "Bull's Blood" this year for the greens in salads as well as the root. I'm trying carrots for the first time too.

@cybrczch: Were you able to eat all of your pole beans? I have so many bags in the freezer that I won't need them this coming year. I'm going to try eggplant this year too. You start peppers inside now? My first year for trying them from seed so that I can taste Rita's Shisito. Rita starts them Mar. 1st. Maybe I should split the difference...

@Rita: I wish you were my neighbor!

Deeby said:Rita, I'll check Home Depot first. Can't wait!

I have only ever found the Shishito Pepper plants at Home Depot. They are never available in six packs (or any other way) in any local nursery near here.

If you would like to mail order plants then

http://www.chileplants.com/

has a fabulous selection!!

Well I guess we're using this thread then...

I have to be careful about going to any sort of garden store for the next several months... I might come out with $200 of stuff that I don't really need just because there's some conceivable situation in which I might need the stuff

Really sorry as I never noticed the other one before starting this one. It seems to have taken off for 2019.

Thanks Rita. I can't wait!

I Have Takara seeds andShistito seeds ordered !
RIta you are such an enabler to those of us who have to try everything !
THanks for sharing your experiences !

Shishitos are just great, great peppers. The plants make plenty of them.

Sorry, I didn't notice the other thread either.

@FrugalGramma, I didn't grow a lot of pole beans, and my bush beans were a bust this year (parts of the garden flooded due to heavy rains a couple of times during the year), but even with the beans I got, I had plenty to eat (with bacon gravy yum), pickled a couple pints, and gave a bunch away to friends. And near the end of the season, the bugs were getting as many as I was. Had my first visit by Japanese beetles last year (squash squish) so I can expect more this coming year.
Even with bottom heat, peppers grow really slow for me. And my clay soil doesn't warm up as fast as I'd like. So any advantage I can get I'll take.

The beans are at 90% germination today, so I am hoping they do well.

60 degrees today, took down all the outside Christmas lights, now working on indoor decorations. It'll all be down by the Epiphany.

I'm growing bush beans for the first time ever this year. Do they like their soil on the drier or wetter side? Any other considerations I should know of before I start them?

repentantslide said:I'm growing bush beans for the first time ever this year. Do they like their soil on the drier or wetter side? Any other considerations I should know of before I start them?

I have always found bush beans very easy to grow. Don't seem need anything special.